Anneliese Dodds reacts to IFS director's comments on Budget including no money to deal with public service pressures arising from pandemic

“Yesterday’s Budget is unravelling fast. After a year when our key worker heroes kept the country going, it’s incredible that the Chancellor couldn’t find a penny more for our schools and hospitals. Instead we got a whopping £30.1 billion cut in day-to-day health spending in future years, when the NHS will be struggling with the post-Covid backlog.

“We need to learn the lessons of this pandemic, not go back to the insecurity of the past. But this Chancellor has the wrong priorities and is totally out of touch with what this country needs.

“This Budget was a test of character for Rishi Sunak. He failed it.”